PUCALLPA, Peru (Reuters) - Delia Pacaya grew up in Peru's Amazon in
a nomadic tribe that shunned contact with outsiders, but when loggers
invaded the land she fled the virgin rain forest and settled in a tiny
village.

Like many others born in the jungle, Pacaya says she felt threatened
by loggers, who often cut beyond the reach of police. The result,
environmental and human rights groups say, is the destruction of the
Amazon and ancient tribal life.

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"There were a lot of loggers and we were afraid," said Pacaya, now
in her 20s, speaking Chitonawa and sitting in a three-sided hut, made
from palm leaves, where her young son played and chickens pecked at the
dirt floor.

Pacaya left her jungle tribe a decade ago and now farms a small plot
on the Murunahua nature reserve in Peru's northeastern region of
Ucayali. Most trappings of modern life escape her but some others, like
nail polish and T-shirts, do not.

Although experts do not know for sure how many indigenous people
have abandoned the rain forest and wound up in towns in recent years,
they say former tribe members struggle to adapt and often fall to
illnesses that their people had never before been exposed to.

"Uncontacted communities are in a very difficult situation. Most of
them are being encroached on by loggers, among others, and their lives
are in danger," said Beatriz Huertas, an anthropologist who often works
with AIDESEP, a rights group.

Of more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, more than half are
thought to live along the Brazil-Peru border. In May, photographs taken
near the border showed two Indian men covered in bright red pigment
poised to fire arrows at an aircraft, apparently feeling threatened.

The photos reignited a debate between rights organizations and the
government at a time when Peru is encouraging companies to explore for
oil and gas in the jungle.

Peru's state-run energy agency Perupetro recently said it would
exclude areas where isolated communities live from an auction of oil
and gas lots. It was a sharp turnaround for Perupetro, which had
previously cast doubt on the existence of remote jungle tribes.

Rights advocates applaud the move but said Peru must do more to
prevent encroachment that threatens to expose tribes to deadly
diseases. They say the government's plans fall short as nomadic tribes
travel in and out of protected parks and enforcement is lax.

ILLEGAL LOGGING

Contact with outsiders has historically been disastrous for Peru's
Indians. More than half of the Murunahua tribe died of colds and other
illnesses after they were contacted by development workers for the
first time in 1996.